This invention is related to apparatus for laying cables into upwardly opening ditches, and specifically relates to so-called cable-layers which include a frame and at least one rotatably supported roller. Such cable-layers are positioned appropriately in a ditch and a cable which is to be buried in the ditch is supported upon and can be relatively moved (pulled) along the frames due to the rotatable rollers thereof which assists in the cable burying operation.
Conventional cable-layers include a frame which is supported upon a bottom of an associated ditch which is to receive a cable or cables. The frame carries a stationary axle which rotatably journals a conveyor roller disposed generally transverse to the ditch. A large number of such conventional cable-layers are set-up in the ditch with a spacing between the cable layers essentially depending upon the path of the ditch, the length of the ditch and the thickness and/or rigidity of the cable being laid. The cable is lowered from above upon the transversely supported conveyor rollers and is initially pulled along the length of the ditch to thereby place the cable upon all of the transversely supported conveyor rollers. Thereafter, each cable-layer is tipped over bodily toward one side of the ditch so that the cable can then slip off each conveyor roller and in this fashion the cable is deposited upon the bottom of the cable ditch. Keeping in mind the fact that cable ditches and the cables laid therein extend from several meters up to two kilometers in length, the tipping of the many cable-layers entails substantial labor, particularly because several cables must be laid sequentially into a cable ditch. Therefore, not only must each cable-layer be bodily tipped over but it must be subsequently set-up once again to accommodate the next cable which is to be laid. Additionally, there is the danger of the cable slipping off the transverse conveyor roller when the cable is being pulled thereon incident to the performance of a burying operation. If the cable drops from one or more of the cable-layers and a portion of the cable falls into the ditch, the latter creates "drag" and precludes the cable from being laid efficiently, quickly and properly.